


Her Last Mission

by RealisticFantasy



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War (Marvel), Gen, Original Character(s), Steve Roger - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 08:25:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5578426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RealisticFantasy/pseuds/RealisticFantasy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one-off of the Civil War battle between Steve Rogers and Cora Matthews, his (OC) fiancée.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Last Mission

**Author's Note:**

> Cora Matthews is an OC that I've created for the purpose of roleplaying. 
> 
> Also, I greatly appreciate comments so feel free to do so! Even something as little as "nice" makes my day. <3

Brute force was never her style. It wouldn’t work for her. She didn’t have the strength for it. As such, she was educated in methods that were subtle and compact so as to complete a mission as quickly and quietly as possible. HYDRA never stood for flailing limbs and strong but misguided jabs. She was taught never to waste a moment, that each movement should be carefully calculated, all possible outcomes considered in an instant. She took those ideals to heart for the sake of her safety and sanity and now fought with a grace and fluidity that made combat almost beautiful to watch. That is, as long as the onlooker could disregard the aspects that made violence disturbing to begin with.

Decades of her endless, excruciating training were dedicated solely to one mission, to one man. In the end of it all, she wanted nothing other than to escape. She thought that maybe she could run away from it all, that there was just the smallest bit of a chance that those decades could be forgotten and she could build herself a new life with him, not against him. But now, to her absolute dismay, those skills would prove useful.

Here she was. Once again standing on the opposite side of the war of the man she so desperately wanted to stand beside. She had done everything in her power to avoid that destiny that was laid out for her time and time again. But here she was, standing in its path again, having only delayed it for a few months longer. Fate had a habit of being funny like that.

“Steve, don’t make this any harder than it it. Lay down your weapon. Turn yourself in. It’s not too late.” She was practically begged him to comply in the most calm and collected voice that she could manage at the moment. She couldn’t imagine taking Steve down like one of their enemies after they had been through. He had changed her for the better and, it seemed, the world had changed him for the worse.

There was half a second of silence where each side considered their options, all eyes on Steve as they awaited his reaction to his fiancée's plea. It all happened in slow motion for her. She saw the flick of his arm and his shield hurled toward her. She felt it hit her in the stomach, the momentum causing her to be thrown back into the wall of a building behind her. The sensation of the impact brought everything back up to speed.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she hoped that she might open them to see the room she had come to call her own. She wanted so desperately to prolong the fate that had clearly been chosen for her. She instead found the hand of the Iron Man suit outstretched toward, a burning sensation tearing through her as her every bone reformed. Taking the hand in front of her, Tony pulled her to her feet. Unlike the time before, she had chosen this side of the war. And Steve had chosen the other.

“Cora…” She could see the regret in Steve’s eyes, watching his lips move with the whisper of her name. Just a few moments ago, it might have been enough to convince her that what she was about to do wasn’t necessary. But things had changed now. Without a single word, she picks up the shield laying still beside her feet and examines it with an emotionless expression. What had once been a symbol of hope, of a happy future now meant nothing to her.

“Are you okay?”

It was a silly question to ask, one that Steve had asked a thousand times more than he needed to on any given day. But today it came from someone else. She regarded Tony with a sideways glance and a twitch of a frown before turning to face him.

“The first decision I made after seventy years of captivity was a promise that I made to myself. I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to keep Steve Rogers from harm. The second was the rest of the Avengers. I hold those two promises in the highest regard and they are the morals by which I stand. But, that?” She pauses to shoot the smallest glance to the Captain.

“Whoever is out there is not my Steve. So stand down, Iron Man. This is my mission.”

Cora continues her quiet, steady march back over to the Captain, leaving Tony staring after her. She stops a few steps away from the blonde, tossing the shield at his feet. Not a word is spoken as the metallic clatter rings out. The silence following the sound weighs heavily on the pair before Cora speaks coldly.

“Captain, if you truly want to carry on like this… you’re in for a hell of a fight.”

There was a moment of reluctance before Cora threatened the draw of her sidearm and Steve kicked up his shield into his hand and swung it at her. Cora dodged it easily, landing a punch to his stomach in the process. Cora dodge, blocked, and countered his every move flawlessly and without hesitation. Landing a kick to his chest, Cora knocks him to the ground and whips out her pistol. Pausing with the trigger half-compressed and her aim between his eyes, she inhales sharply. It was all muscle memory, a fluid regime pieced together from careful analysis of his every movement over the years. It had been all she knew for quite some time.

“Don’t get up.” She remarks bitterly, looking down at the bruised and broken face of a man she once thought she knew like the back of her own hand. She had loved him once. No, she still loved him. She hoped that he knew that.

He jumps up quickly, directing the aim toward the sky as an unintentional shot went off. Turning her around, he pins her arms behind her head. She throws herself forward, landing him on his back again as she tears the pistol from his grasp. Again, she stands over him with her aim trained on his forehead.

“Don’t get up.” She repeats with just as much venom as before in between heavy breaths. Again, Steve vaults to his feet. And again, Cora takes him down. For a moment, Cora abandons her pistol and instead chooses to pick Steve up slightly by the collar of his uniform.

“Do. Not. Get. Up.” With each word, Cora lands a punch to Steve’s jaw before dropping him back to the ground. Pushing herself to her feet, she retrieves her pistol as Steve props himself up with a groan.

“What don’t you understand?” She questions cruelly as she cocks the pistol, turning to face him as he struggles to attempt to get on his feet again. “I will kill you, Captain.”

Steve chuckles breathlessly as he falls to the ground again. He pushes himself onto one knee, looking up at her. “No, you won’t.”

She thought the sight might ruin her. The gesture that was tied to one of the happiest moments of her life now tarnished with the sight of him in rags, bleeding and broken. At her hand, no less. Looking down at the man that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, she inhales deeply. She felt… nothing. The numbness was inexplicable. Watching him struggle to his feet and stumble toward her elicited no pity or shame or guilt. The was only one thought in her mind: to end this.

She silently watches him approach her unsteadily. He places a hand on her shoulder heavily to balance himself. She meets his gaze with an emotionless expression. For once, her stoicism wasn’t a facade.

“Don’t you want this to be over? So we can go home?”

The thought of living a happy life was so tempting. That was all she ever wanted. It would be so simple to fight alongside him and to be his support. She considers the consequences of her options before meeting his gaze again.

“Yes, I do,” She answers slowly followed by the smallest twitch of her lips.

“Then, fight with me. Let’s end this.”

There was a long silence as she looked him over before her lips met his. After a moment, she pulls away sharply, ending the embrace as two shots ring out. She presses a hand to his cheek and watches the color drain from his face.

“I’m sorry, Steve. That’s not my mission,” she murmurs in a broken whisper as a pair of tears run down her cheeks. She sets him down gently, sitting on the ground with him in her arms. Cradling him, she lays her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat slow and stop with soft sobs. There was nothing but the two of them. Everything was silent as whispered apologies against his skin. She couldn’t hear Nat’s screams or Tony and Bucky begging for Steve to fight to stay alive. Her whole world had died in her arms and she had no one to blame but herself. It was finally over.


End file.
